Former state Assembly member Carlos Villapudua has asked California’s Attorney General to investigate a Stockton Christian-based food bank to see if some of the $5 million Villapudua secured for the operation is being spirited away to Las Vegas.
The head of Oasis City Center and Oasis Church, Larry “Pastor Joey” Steelman, says members of his flock are merely confused by his move to Nevada and his ministry’s expansion.
“It’s hard for some people to digest,” Steelman said.
Villapudua is among those suffering indigestion. “I’m upset that this money is going from San Joaquin County to Las Vegas,” he said.
Villapudua, who served in the state Assembly 2020-24, secured the $5 million state grant in 2021 to fund Oasis City Center as a much-needed north Stockton food bank and haven.
“A lot of the nonprofits are scattered in south Stockton,” forcing needy northsiders to drive across town, Villapudua said. “They needed to have their own community center.”
He added that $5 million is an unusually large grant for a nonprofit.
To set up the food bank, Steelman bought the former Copeland’s Sporting Goods building at 848 E. Hammer Lane for about $2 million. The money came from donations and funds on hand, the pastor said.
With the grant millions — the contract stipulated that the money should be spent by 2023 — he funded a “food and resource relief program.” He bought a semi-truck, reefer trailers, regular trailers, a food wagon and a 2022 Chevrolet Silverado to pull it, forklifts, scales, food conveyor belts, a shrink wrap machine, food carts, a sound system, gym equipment and paraphernalia.
The gym equipment was to draw people to Oasis where they could find God and be saved, Steelman said (Oasis Church is located adjacent to the City Center in the same building).
Steelman says he came to God through a Christian-adjacent gym, after a troubled youth in which he racked up two felonies (since expunged, he added).
Oasis did many good works. “Since 2020, we have provided food assistance to over 800,000 people and distributed 3.5 MILLION pounds of food to 300,000 families!” its website says.
Just last Saturday the Center threw a holiday giveaway, handing out 15,000 pounds of food—hams, turkeys, eggs, pantry staples—to more than 300 families in two hours.
Oasis also mentors youths age 13-18 through a variety of activities and programs. It refers people to resources such as PG&E discounts and to services such as the Child Abuse Prevention Council and the San Joaquin Partnership for Families.
Work like this is why then-Mayor Michael Tubbs gave Steelman the key to the city. “I’m most proud of all our contributions and services for all the people,” Steelman said.
Yet roughly a year after the grant was spent,when approached by a buyer, Steelman agreed to sell the building. Few, if any, Oasis staffers or members were informed.
“It was shocking to me that the building on Hammer was being sold,” said Gene Eacret, who says he quietly resigned from the board when he learned.
Steelman also put most of the food bank equipment — big trucks, reefer trailers, the food wagon, other items — up for sale, first on Facebook Marketplace, then on eBay.
Eacret, who resigned in October, didn’t know about the equipment sales at all. “I had no clue that any stuff was being sold on eBay or Facebook Marketplace,” he said. “I’m certain I wasn’t told.”
The for-sale postings alerted staffers and church members who called Villapudua. He, like the church members who contacted him, was surprised and concerned. “This was bought no more than a year ago,” he said. “Now it’s up for sale.”
An employee of San Joaquin County, which partially administered the grant, called to ask Oasis staffers why the food wagon was up for sale. Shortly afterwards, the food wagon post was taken down.
Concerns intensified on Nov. 10 when Steelman reportedly announced at a staff meeting that all Stockton operations were closing. God was calling the Steelmans to Las Vegas, he said.
“Actually, I didn’t fully say that,” Steelman said. “I was sharing about transition and expansion.”
He elaborated, “The challenge when you’re the lead pastor and they’re used to you doing everything — being completely present in Stockton as I have been for years — the challenge of the change of expansion is always the tough one for some people to navigate.”
Steelman also instructed staffers to turn down further grant funding, raising eyebrows and deepening fears of closure.
Steelman says he did, but not because Oasis City Center is closing. “I didn’t want the burden of invoice grants,” he said, saying they require too much paperwork and staff time. “Those grants are immensely beneficial to our community but they’re hard to steward.”
Oasis Community Center lost money and required subsidies from the church and other donors, Steelman said. “A building can’t run off grants alone. It never has. It has run off my full concentration,” which Steelman said he was no longer able to provide when called to expand the ministry to Vegas.
It is possible Steelman miscommunicated his intentions. But whether he has been “completely present in Stockton” is questionable.
Property records from Clark County, Nevada, show Oasis Church San Joaquin County bought a condominium in Las Vegas in November 2022.
At some point, Steelman began living there at least part time with his family. He and wife Jennifer flew back weekly to Stockton for Sunday services.
Steelman said they were not putting in mere appearances in Stockton, but dividing time between both cities. “We were back and forth,” he said. He added that the board was aware of his Vegas home.
Records also show Charles Blackburn, who has served both as an Oasis board member and financial adviser, bought a $1 million Las Vegas house in May. Steelman confirmed Blackburn rents the house to him, and that his family moved there from the condo.
Blackburn also bought the new Oasis Church building on Rainbow Road in Vegas and leases it to Oasis. The church is not holding services yet.
“Charlie is a good friend of ours and the ministry,” Steelman said. “And he’s been a great help to the ministry. He’s actually a help to the board and the business.”
Recently the food bank’s semi-truck and two 50-foot reefer trailers were sold — to Charles Blackburn.
Did Blackburn pay market value? “I wouldn’t know anything about that,” said Steelman, who says he is not involved in the financial aspects of the operation. For the same reason, he said he cannot account for the profits from the condo sale.
“A pastor can only do so much,” he said.
Oasis Church also invested substantially in Oregon property owned by Blackburn. The CEO of Trinity Asset Holding company, Blackburn lives in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Blackburn said he bought them to be helpful. “I was told they were unable to sell the truck and the trailers,” he said. “And I offered to sell them back if they had other buyers,” because, he said, he has no use for the vehicles. “I’ve got these assets that are depreciating, as trucks and trailers do, sitting in a warehouse.”
Blackburn is also the developer of the Ridgewater subdivision of Klamath Falls, the property which Oasis Church invested in substantially.
Steelman had money to invest so Blackburn says he let Oasis buy numerous lots that came with power, water, fiber optics, and paved roads. As they sell, Oasis recoups its investment, and “it’s worked out nicely for everybody,” Blackburn said.
He said he bought the Vegas Oasis building because he believes in the Steelmans. “They are very good people. I’m just trying to do my part to help them get to the next level.”
Inside the Las Vegas church building Jen Steelman has opened Haven Bakehouse, a bakery. Unusually, Haven bakehouse is a for-profit business within a nonprofit church.
“We’re working through it,” Steelman said. “We don’t know the deal. I’m not positive how that’s working yet. I can’t explain it.”
He said he is consulting his attorney.
The fact that the church is not open yet, therefore not generating revenue, raises the question of how the bakery was paid for.
“Oasis ministries, the church in Stockton and elsewhere, is supporting the Las Vegas mission,” Steelman said. “Oasis ministries support several ministries.”
Sleuthing church members snapped photographs of the 2022 Chevrolet Silverado pickup — the vehicle purchased to tow the food trailer around Stockton — parked out front of the Vegas church and bakery.
“That truck goes back and forth,” Steelman said. “But actually, it’s a City Center vehicle. That will be staying in Stockton.”
That is not the case for some of the gym equipment, which staff loaded onto a truck for transport to Vegas.
The gym equipment was purchased by Oasis Church and loaned to the City Center, Steelman said. “So that if the gym equipment needed to be reutilized and repurposed somewhere else, it’s our ability to do that.”
Ninety percent of the gym equipment was sold to cover costs, Steelman said.
The Steelmans appear to have vacillated over closing Oasis City Center. Whether that was because of pushback from staff and church members, or because of Villapudua’s intervention and call for the Attorney General to investigate, or for reasons to do with their ministry and its finances is widely debated among Oasis followers.
It’s also unclear if Villapudua’s staff did due diligence to ascertain if Oasis was sustainable before securing the grant.
Stephanie Yoder, who handles communications for San Joaquin County, said the county is aware of the Oasis situation, but added, “As far as any involvement with Oasis, the County has completed its responsibilities tied to this funding as a pass-through entity.”
Eacret said he is, “hurt. It’s painful when you have a friend that doesn’t tell you something.”
Villapudua used the word ‘hurt,’ too. “We fought so hard to get this $5 million. This is good, hard-earned tax dollars to help North Stockton where it’s needed most. Now it’s being sold out from under us, and he didn’t tell us.”
Villapudua said Attorney General Rob Bonta personally told him his office would investigate but added that from here on out the AG’s actions are confidential.
San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas also has opened an investigation.
“Let me be clear: at this stage, they are allegations, but the investigation is actively underway,” the DA’s Office said in a statement. “DA Freitas condemns in the strongest terms the theft of money meant for children, calling it an act of moral turpitude that will be met with the full force of the law.”
Blackburn sees the staff resistance as an attempted hostile takeover. “They seem to want full control of the Oasis City center. And to continue to pay themselves.”
Staffers contacted – none of whom would go on the record for fear of reprisal – say they deeply believe in the mission and viability of Oasis City Center.
Steelman said he is ‘absolutely’ confident any investigation or audit will show everything is in order. He ascribes the dissension and suspicion to a misunderstanding stemming from a pastor who bounces around a lot and a dynamic, expanding ministry.
“I think in hindsight all of us can handle things better,” he said. “I could have worded things a lot better. I could have given a heads-up but sometimes I don’t have a heads-up to give.”
But, added the pastor, “The City Center and the works we have done will continue on in the city of Stockton for years to come. A majority of our work is without walls.”
Michael Fitzgerald’s column runs weekly. On Twitter and Instagram as Stocktonopolis. Email: mfitzgeraldstockton@gmail.com